Kurdish fighters claim having destroyed a Turkish tank in Syria

Kurdish fighters from Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) released a video on Saturday showing their fighters destroying a tank being used by Turkish-backed rebels in northwest Syria near Azaz.

According to the YPG Press Office, Kurdish forces targeted and destroyed a tank belonging to rebels groups under the Turkish army’s command near Azaz hospital in Afrin’s Shera district.

“Today at about 9:30 am our forces targeted and destroyed a tank belonging to terrorist groups under the Turkish army’s command near in Afrin’s Shera district,” the YPG said on Facebook.

Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group and an extension of the PKK, which has been trying to set up its own Kurdish state within Turkey for decades.

The video posted to the YPG’s media site shows them used Soviet-made 9M113 Konkurs wire-guided anti-tank missile.

The 9M113 Konkurs was developed by the Tula Machinery Design Bureau (Tula KBP). Development began with the aim of producing the next generation of SACLOS anti-tank missiles, for use in both the man-portable role and the tank destroyer role. The 9M113 Konkurs was developed alongside the 9M111; the missiles use similar technology, differing only in size. The warhead penetration is 600 mm vs rolled homogeneous armour(RHA).